Arms and Armour.
A volume might well be taken up with describing mediæval arms and armour. It is true iron and steel are the chief metals in the making of weapons, but brass and bronze are closely allied with some of the armaments of war. Many of the small mediæval cannon were of brass, and not a few of the guns, or "hand cannon," were of that metal.
In the days of Elizabeth the musketeer carried, in addition to an unwieldy weapon, his flask of powder, touch-box, and burning match. The match-box was a tube of copper pierced with small holes, and in it the lighted match could be conveyed safely. The powder-horn was at first of real horn, but in time it became a copper flask. Many of the old flasks were exceedingly ornate, and were often ornamented with hunting scenes worked up in repoussé on the copper sides. The spur-makers were important craftsmen in early days, and under the name of the Guild of Loriners ranked with the City companies. It is true that the spur rowels of six, eight, or even twelve points were generally of iron, but the collector of metal finds many interesting specimens made entirely of brass. One pair of spurs in the reign of Henry VIII consist of fourteen brass points, the neck of the rowel being shaped like a peacock and embossed with brass rosettes. Our finest collection of armour and of ceremonial metal-work—that splendid collection which dates from quite early times, finding its greatest strength and massive grandeur in late mediæval days and its artistic ornament in the richly damascened armour of lesser weight of the Stuarts—is rightly housed in that greatest of English strongholds, the Tower of London. It is there that the antiquary and the archæologist love to wander, and in the vast recesses of those dungeons and prison-like towers read history. There is an abundance of metal everywhere. Guns and cannon and mortars of historic fame lie about in the open. The Bloody Tower, nearly opposite the Traitors' Gate, the Middle Tower, the Byward Tower, and many others of equal interest may be seen. To some the Regalia with its crowns, swords, and sceptres of state, ampulla, spoon, salt-cellars, maces, and orders of merit, are the greatest attraction. The curio collector, however, finds his way to the museum and admires and perhaps envies the quaint and curious guns, powder-horns, and trophies of war. He is in the midst of the England of the Middle Ages, with its jousts and tournaments, shut out by the thick walls of the White Tower from the hurry and bustle of the traffic and commerce of the twentieth century.
The magnificent armour in Hertford House—the Wallace collection—is a delight to those who love to see in arms and armour the perfection of beauty of ornament and decoration. There are splendid suits which look as bright as the day when they were new. The half-suit of armour of Italian workmanship made for Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara, inlaid and damascened with gold and silver, is said to be the finest in Europe. The staging of this splendid collection was carried out by Mr. Guy Laking, the Keeper of the King's Armour and Custodian of the London Museum.
A fitting conclusion to this chapter is, surely, a tribute to the armourers and founders and smiths of the Middle Ages, who worked so conscientiously and made their work lasting. It has retained its beauty and much of its ancient finish, notwithstanding atmospheric influences; indeed, some of it gained added beauty by oxidation.
VI
LATER
METAL-WORK
FIG. 12.—BRASS COUVRE DE FEU, A RARE EARLY PIECE.
(In the Chadwick Museum, Bolton.)
CHAPTER VI
LATER METAL-WORK
The influence of the Guilds—Architectural metal-work—The door knocker—Interior metal-work.
In all branches of art there seems to be a break between the earlier mediæval and the later art which was the outcome to some extent of the great Renaissance or revival which swept over the Continent of Europe and brought with it such a change in everything appertaining to the beautiful. Whilst mediæval metal-workers produced grand examples full of design and ornament, influenced by the touch with Eastern nations which the Crusaders gave them, the later smiths and founders gradually evolved styles of their own, more English to our ideas. The Renaissance with its wealth of ornament did not so much apply to copper and brass as it did to the metal-work of the smith who forged that which was beautiful and ornate in iron on his anvil. Yet some of those florid designs were reproduced by the brassfounder.
After the Restoration the art treasures which had been destroyed during the Commonwealth were replaced, as evidenced by the Regalia in the Tower, where there is so much silver-gilt and gold plate which represents the more decorative art of that period. In that famous collection of national Regalia, symbols of office, and vessels used on rare occasions, there is the alms-dish used for the distribution of the King's doles on Maundy Thursday. It bears the Royal cipher of William and Mary, and contrasts with the other plate in that it is remarkably plain, typical in its decoration with the earlier metal-work of the days of Queen Anne and those years which immediately followed her reign. When we walk through some of the once select, although now not much used, thoroughfares in London and admire the stately old houses which may be seen still in some of the Metropolitan squares, especially in the open thoroughfare known as Queen Anne's Gate, we are inclined to wonder whether after all "Queen Anne is dead." That hackneyed expression used in a humorous sense at times is certainly not true in so far as the remarkable developments in building operations and the characteristic decorations of Queen Anne's day live still not only in the old houses which are still undisturbed, but in the designs and characteristic patterns which were then adopted by metal-workers and others, their beauty and grace being recognized to such an extent that they are to-day among the much copied antiques.